I went to a doctor at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire today for a surgery consult. I went in wanting a hysterectomy, but now I’m not so sure. He did the usual, history check and pelvic exam (those things hurt pretty bad these days), then I asked him a slew of questions.
I was under the impression that endo was found on the outside of my bladder and on my uterus. Maybe I heard the doctor that did my first surgery wrong. She gave me a bunch of pictures (right after I woke up from surgery), and I thought one was of the outside of my uterus. I guess she said behind my uterus though, because in the report it says peritoneal surface of bladder and cul-de-sac.
I was all amped thinking that if most of it was on my uterus and we took that out, that would take care of a lot of it. As it is, taking out my uterus alone would only sterilize me (not a bad thing). We’d have to take out both ovaries to make an impact, and then I would become menopausal. Just trading one set of problems for another.
So I think what I will do is just have the surgery to clean up everything on the inside, and maybe think about tubal ligation. That worries me though because the tubes can grow back together, and you don’t know they have until you’re pregnant. I have to do more research on tubal ligation before I decide on that one.
I still have one more doctor to talk to about this next week. We’ll see if she says anything different. I just want this mess out of me.
Endo Sucks 
A full hysterectomy is not such a bad thing and it doesn’t really force you to be “menopausal.” My grandmother had everything pulled out at the age of 28 and put on HRT – the HRT can be adjusted properly which means you never have an unwanted surge of hormones. My mother had hers out at 40 and she lost weight, never had any more PMS symptoms. I’m about to get mine done because the benefit out weighs everything else.
Tubal litigation is only going to stop eggs from dropping- they burn the end of the tubes and it’s highly unlikely for them to grow back – and even more unlikely they can be put back together by a surgeon. I don’t have endo, but I do have a very sensitive cervix so I can’t wait for my surgery. I have PMDD as well, so being on HRT will be a welcome change.
the only experience I have with endo is a friend who has it. She had a full hysterectomy at 27 and is on estrogen therapy to avoid the on set of menopause. She had the surgery at least a year ago and her hormone levels are not correct yet. However in her specific cause she has always been very senstive to hormones (ie birth control made her nuts). Recently she was told she was bipolar but now after some review she believes it is likely that estrogen levels are out of wack. This is just her experience with it and I think most of her problems we the surgery are because she is sensitve to estrogen replacement.